This
was the 25th anniversary for the Corvette, and Chevrolet
introduced the most extensively redesigned Corvette
since 1968. Twenty Five years after the birth of "America's
Sports Car", the Corvette finally got a chance
to pace the Indy 500 in 1978.

The
car came standard with a 350 ci. (L-48) 185 hp motor.
An optional 220-horsepower, 350 ci engine (L-82) was
available. It was the first Pace Car in history to use
an entirely stock drivetrain.

The
1978 Corvette was driven by 1960 Indy 500 winner Jim
Rathmann, his fifth time at the wheel of the pace car.

Although
only 300 replicas were originally planned to match the
production number of the 1953 model, Chevrolet eventually
had to produce 1 for approximately every dealer for
a total of 6502.

The
race winner for 1978 was Al Unser, driving his First
National City / Chaparral Lola / Cosworth.